Carroll gets new three-year deal through 2016

Pete Carroll has agreed to a new three-year contract to continue as coach of the Seattle Seahawks, it was announced at a press conference at the VMAC this morning.

The contract will take Carroll through the 2016 season, the same as general manager John Schneider.

The two each came to the Seahawks in 2010 and have led the team to unprecedented heights, including a win over Denver in the Super Bowl.

Financial details were not yet known.

Carroll’s original five-year contract, which paid him a reported $7 million a year, was due to run out following the 2014 season and Schneider called it “a huge priority” to sign Carroll to a new deal because “we knew it was coming around the corner.”

The new contract replaces the old one so it covers the 2014-2016 seasons. Schneider agreed to a new deal after last season that also keeps him in Seattle through 2016.

Schneider said there was no special significance to the length of Carroll’s deal other than that it was “just part of the negotiation.”

Said Carroll: “We have demonstrated our willingness to be here and be part of this and then followed up with a tremendous commitment from the club.”

Carroll, who is 62, is 43-28, including playoffs, in four seasons in Seattle.

Carroll said getting a new deal was important only because “it was important to them.” He said he had every intention of staying with the Seahawks, saying “we are in the middle of something special here.”

He said the new deal is “really a statement of our commitment and it’s a statement of our staying power and our willingness to do something really special with this opportunity here.”

Carroll was already considered among the highest-paid coaches in the NFL, with his $7 million salary ranking a reported tied for third in the league last season behind the $8 million of Sean Payton of New Orleans and the $7.5 million of New England’s Bill Belichick.